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The Quran tells us that the universes almost shatter out of reverence for God. The heavens are completely certain about God. The heavens, the earth and the mountains know how great God is, and how blasphemous it is to set up idols and equate them to God or to say that God has begotten a son.
[42:5] The heavens above them almost shatter, out of reverence for Him, and the angels praise and glorify their Lord, and they ask forgiveness for those on earth. Absolutely, GOD is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.
God willing we should strive for that level of reverence and certainty. We must have certainty about God and unconditional Submission to Him alone. Having certainty about the existence of God is a great blessing from God. We are given examples in the Quran of receiving this blessing:
[6:75] We showed Abraham the marvels of the heavens and the earth, and blessed him with certainty.
Certainty doesn’t come right away and it takes work. God willing, as new Submitters we start with receiving guidance from our Creator. We may have questions or some doubts when we start, but we keep working on our belief until we attain certainty, with God’s help. God gives us many gifts to help us attain certainty. The practices of worship are a means to attain certainty.
[15:98-99] You shall sing the praises of your Lord, and be with the prostrators. And worship your Lord, in order to attain certainty.
God tells us how to work on certainty, but He also gave us freedom. That means certainty is not forced upon us. Each soul is in charge of its own “weights and measures” through the gift of freedom of choice. And the most intelligent and greatest choice is to choose willingly to be redeemed by the Most Gracious, Most Merciful Lord through Submission to Him alone. The responsibilities of freedom of choice are presented to us simply. A soul that chooses the devil will keep getting weaker. And as the soul gets weaker, it will be harder for that soul to see God and God’s path.
On the other hand, a soul that chooses God is fortified by good deeds, and it gets stronger. And as it gets stronger it is easier to believe and worship God. God’s promise is that He will reward the believing souls with sovereignty, and will substitute peace and security for them in place of fear.
[24:55-56] GOD promises those among you who believe and lead a righteous life, that He will make them sovereigns on earth, as He did for those before them, and will establish for them the religion He has chosen for them, and will substitute peace and security for them in place of fear. All this because they worship Me alone; they never set up any idols beside Me. Those who disbelieve after this are the truly wicked. You shall observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and give the obligatory charity (Zakat), and obey the messenger, that you may attain mercy.
To attain sovereignty and happiness we must worship God alone. And be absolutely devoted to Him alone. This is the only way to make it back to God. (37:40, 26:89)
The actual and conscious choice to be willing to choose the worship of God alone must come from within. This must be followed by a desire to overcome our doubts and seek God’s guidance and His blessing of certainty. If we sincerely seek God and do our best (and God knows our hearts better than we do), He will bless us to deepen our Submission and allow us to grow closer and closer to Him. Each doubt, each bit of confusion will slowly be overcome with His help. This process may take a lifetime or we may be blessed with certainty sooner. But we must keep striving to grow our souls. We must never give up, nor let the doubts conquer us. The hypocrites fall into this trap and let the doubts overcome them. They let the whispers from Satan fester inside them and the doubts about God grow until the doubts win.
In contrast, the believers are those who overcome their doubts in this world. In 49:15 God tells us that believers are those who believe in God and then attain a status of having no doubt whatsoever, and they strive to please God.
[49:14-15] The Arabs said, “We are Mu’mens (believers).” Say, “You have not believed; what you should say is, ‘We are Muslims (submitters),’
until belief is established in your hearts.” If you obey GOD and His messenger, He will not put any of your works to waste. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful. Mu’mens (believers) are those who believe in GOD and His messenger, then attain the status of having no doubt whatsoever, and strive with their money and their lives in the cause of GOD. These are the truthful ones.
Having no doubt about God and His words is not the end. Submission never ends; it will be a state that goes on forever. God willing, we want to join the ranks of God’s creatures who submit totally and absolutely to God alone, those who never question God’s absolute authority. We may slip up. But God allows us to repent and reform and hold fast to the rope of God. If we denounce the devil and believe in God, He allows us to grasp the strongest bond.
[2:256] There shall be no compulsion in religion: the right way is now distinct from the wrong way. Anyone who denounces the devil and believes in GOD has grasped the strongest bond; one that never breaks. GOD is Hearer, Omniscient.
God never fails to reward the believers for their righteous works. A growing soul is rewarded with more and more opportunities to continue growing. The weights of our souls must get heavier, God willing. Those whose weights are heavy are promised heaven.
[7:8-9] The scales will be set on that day, equitably. Those whose weights are heavy will be the winners. As for those whose weights are light, they will be the ones who lost their souls, as a consequence of disregarding our revelations, unjustly.
To grow the souls, we must keep making the right choices. Those blessed with certainty about God’s laws won’t have doubts whether to break God’s law or not. The sins are clear, the good deeds are clear. Certainty helps us maintain our absolute devotion to God alone and take advantage of the gift of guidance. Certainty about God’s absolute authority and about worshiping God alone helps us avoid all kinds of idols and make intelligent choices with God’s help. When we attain certainty, we know we must devote our worship absolutely to God alone.